Mar

31st

Microsoft Taking Google Complaint to the European Commission

Microsoft is set to take an anti-competition complaint against Google to the European Commission.

The multinational corporation claims that Google used its dominant position in the search market to restrict growth of Microsoft services.

Microsoft has cited a number of places, notable Google limiting the ability of Bing to index web content.

Microsoft’s general counsel, Brad Smith outlined the company’s grievances in a blog, going on to list five different ways in which Google, according to Microsoft, has sought to control the search market.

They are:

Using technical measures to stop Bing from indexing content on Google-owned YouTube.

Blocking Microsoft Smartphones from operating properly with YouTube.

Controlling access to online copies of out-of-copyright books.

Limiting the ability of businesses to reclaim "their own information" generated through Google advertising campaigns for use elsewhere.

Compelling leading websites to only use Google search boxes on their pages.

The European Commission previously launched an investigation into allegations of anti-competitive practices by Google back in November.

For this latest case to be accepted, Microsoft will have to prove two things – firstly that Google was dominant in a particular market (search), and secondly – that Google had abused that position.

Google said it was not surprised by the move and would happily explain itself.